Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Following word of a “if breached, we’ll cover some of your costs” program from Heartland, fellow payment processor Mercury Payment Systems has launched its own program, one featuring $40,000 of reimbursement from any of its retail customers that are breached. Mercury officials stress that it’s far from a reaction to Heartland, as Mercury started its program in late June and Heartland is only promising it for later this year.

The Mercury program is limited to retailers who “have successfully completed their SAQ and quarterly scans and remedied any highlighted issues,” said Kim Mackay, Mercury’s VP of marketing. “This is as much as 15K towards a 3rd party forensic audit and as much as 25K toward fees and fines. Although 40K doesn’t sound like much, our research has shown that our typical (Level 4) merchant would be covered. And this is regardless of whether they use our PCI program or someone else’s from a list of approved ASV’s.” Will this soon become a processor must-have?